Doug Polk Wins One Drop High Roller at the WSOP for $3,686,865

Upswing Poker featured pro Doug Polk won his third World Series of Poker gold bracelet Tuesday night when he defeated fellow high stakes player Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier to become the 2017 WSOP High Roller for One Drop champion.

After four grueling days of tough competition in the $111,111 buy-intournament that included some of the biggest names in poker, Doug was awarded$3,686,865 — which now places him above $8.8 million in career live poker event cash prize winnings.

The win comes just a week after the launch of Upswing’s Tournament Master Class — an advanced tournament poker training course developed by Pratyush Buddiga and featuring Doug — which is available here.

In an exclusive interview with PokerNews immediately following his victory, Doug acknowledged the prestige that comes with winning one of the most competitive live poker tournaments of the year compared to his 2014 and 2016 WSOP bracelet victories, which both came in $1,000 events.

“To win that much money against tough people in a world-class event, it’s way different.”

Doug got it all-in behind with his short stack, but was able to outflop Jacobson and secure a key double. It was the next hand against the same opponent, however, that was the most talked about hand of the night.

Blinds 120k/240k/40k. 9 Players Remaining.

Doug is in the big blind with A♦ T♦ Jacobson raises to 525k from middle position. Only Doug calls.

The herofold from Jacobson sent a boat-load of EV over to Doug, who was now sitting in the top 3 with 7.6M chips.

Doug stayed relatively active as players started to bust one after the other. With 4 players left, he doubled up with A♥ T♦ against the As 9s of Dario Sammartino, which catapulted him into to the chip lead with over 21M.

Doug went on to bust the next 3 players:

First, Doug woke up with AA in the big blind and held against the A♣ 5♣ of Haralabos Voulgaris

Next, Sammartino shoved from the button with Q♣ 5♣, which couldn’t run down Doug’s K♥ T♥

Doug Polk 2017 WSOP Giveaway Details

Doug informed his audience before the final table that he owned a 43 percent share of his High Roller for One Drop buy-in stake (roughly $48,000 out of $111,111), which means the giveaway amount is currently…

Over $31,000 USD!

…to go along with the $1.5 million profit Doug turned over the long weekend. With over a month of competition remaining in the 48th Annual World Series of Poker, Doug’s giveaway participants will get a rare opportunity to sweat more tournaments with the benefit of an early and insurmountable lead.

Marked Cards Controversy

The 2017 High Roller for One Drop WSOP bracelet event experienced controversy during Tuesday night’s final table. At approximately 8:30pm local time (PST), Doug informed his Twitter followers that the action had been temporarily halted, as a number of players at the table reported marked cards and refused to continue until a new deck was provided.

The cards at this final table are marked, we are not going to continue until we have a real deck

The players’ demand for a new deck of cards — reported by PokerNews to be insisted upon by Doug and Haralabos Voulgaris — was later clarified by the high profile poker personality, who absolved his opponents of any wrongdoing in the matter.

WSOP 2017 Raises Over $500,000 for One Drop Foundation

PokerGO live commentator David Tuchman revealed Tuesday that more than half a million dollars has already been raised at this year’s Series to benefit the One Drop Foundation charity headed by Cirque du Soleil co-founder Guy Laliberté.

Doug’s win Tuesday night could result in a relationship between the heads-up No Limit Hold’em specialist and the One Drop Foundation that leads to an educational experience similar to the one enjoyed by Dan Colman three years ago in El Salvador and Honduras.

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David Huber

David Huber (known as "dhubermex" online) has been involved in the poker industry for more than a decade. He currently assists several poker and gaming entities as a researcher, writer, and consultant. Former Editor-in-Chief & Head Moderator of online tournament rankings site PocketFives (2006-2011).